OK, first problem. I recorded my introduction bit, looked at the scenario map, recorded that bit, then went to switch to 64-bit as I realized I had forgotten to do so (I was playing Suburban Glasgow, the North Clyde Line from Helensburg to Springburn, Clydesline Direct scenario, which I don't think matter here). I exited 32-bit, and went to open up 64-bit. Suddenly, the game would not launch. 32-bit OR 64-bit. I tried verifying file, and 45 minutes later that did nothing. I ran all the installers for C++, etc. Nope. I tried changing a certain DLL per a suggestion on the Steam discussion boards. Nada. I added the 64-bit version to NVIDIA Control Panel. No dice. And 32-bit still wouldn't run. I finally was forced to reboot, and THEN the 32-bit version of the game ran. I am scared to try 64-bit again, but know some things require that. So I went ahead and played my scenario, a future Youtube video release. I then got to my score screen, went to return to the menu in the Career tab. Let's just say this looked weird. I was taking video when this happened. I was going through the route list and trying to get back to Suburban Glasgow. On the video, it just looks like the game freezes while loading the images on the nine routes. It doesn't actually look like the screen above on my video, and fortunately I had my iPad in front of me to grab this shot. I had to do that because I could not quit the game, and even closing Steam didn't kill it. I was only able to close apps via Alt-TAB. Once only the game was left, I couldn't close it there either. I had to cold boot the machine as I could do nothing. So I am presenting two issues I need assistance with. Why would my game suddenly bug out like this, and more importantly, why can't I run 64-bit Train Simulator - or any of it after attempting such? This is also the second time I've had to cold boot, so this is not a good record. This is why we need a new core for this game, and why that should be the number one priority, not new routes! I would like someone from DTG to give me some feedback on this. I will withhold playing the game Sunday so I can grab a crash log if needed. I realize it could also be cache, and will reset that when I reload the game next.
Possibly your monitor is not running at it's native resolution See if this helps https://forums.dovetailgames.com/threads/graphic-problems-in-game.30706/#post-202086
Happened to me a couple of weeks ago. Turned out to be a bad graphics driver which I had to uninstall then not install the bloatware driver handler software
Here's the quirk: I've never CHANGED the graphics setting. On my computer or in any game. Ever. So the procedure of rebuilding the file would basically do the exact same thing I have now. If I were to have to drop to a 1,600x900 setting to play the game, that would be different. How would I go about determining what this driver is? Also, are you on Windows 10, update 2004?
I am using a Radeon driver and updated to their latest software, which apparently is a complete pig Yes, but not having any issues with it so far.
Cyclone You have described a complex problem that is most likely to be idiosyncratic to your install. I am not convinced that this is a TS bug at all as many of us have no issues in running either 32/64-bit, the only difference between the two is that they might use different Registry Entries and/or RAM addresses. Let's eliminate any Windows issues: Can you run TS 64-bit in Windows "SAFE" mode? Have you run any Windows diagnostic tests - sfc/scannow, DISM, DxDiag, chkdsk, RAM test etc? Any Errors? Any reports in "View Reliability History", or "Event Viewer"? Any Temperature issues? What are your computer specs, including, Video card, Monitor type, Windows recommended resolution, Resolution used in TS, Full Screen, Windowed, Borderless and so on. How much RAM installed? Any non-standard sound settings Exactly what driver are you using for your graphics card Any recent add-ons installed including WS scenarios? Cleared the blueprint cache before starting in 64-bit? Go to \STEAM\steamapps\common\RailWorks\Assets, and delete/save to a different folder any blueprints.pak files - then start in 64-bit mode. AV, anti-malware, FireWall settings to allow railworks64.exe UAC settings to allow railworks64.exe to function?
Oh boy, let's see where to start here. I am certain the 64-bit part is indeed not a TS bug, but something going on in my Windows. I am not sure how to address the graphical glitch. I can explain exactly the experience if needed. I have not tried running 64-bit again since the failure yesterday. 32-bit works again. I have started running those tests. DxDiag is done. Tried to run DISM, but nothing seemed to load. I can come back to the others. Event Viewer, I'm looking at application tab, and much of it is ESENT, tile viewer logging issues. A bunch are concentrated into yesterday during a period I wasn't playing, but as more events ran over the evening, they were more interspersed. I had killed Firefox prior to the reboot attempt, so worked back there for hints (this is 11:08 p.m.). This leads me to 9:44:27 p.m. where Railworks appears in my search for the first time. Here's the report: that was under "Information". Two seconds earlier, an "ERROR": The event viewer also reports an AppCrash, but I'm not sure why it claims the app crashed at 6:15:41 p.m. One second before that, an error identical to the above except for the Faulting application start time, Faulting process id (0x268), and report ID. It seems every time I quit Railworks, there is an app crash, so this is not going to help me. I mean, there is one from November 5 as well, but I had no problems at all that day. I only know the faulting module is always OpenAL32.dll. System tab of course represents the unexpected reboot but nothing appliation-related. I suspect that the fact that Railworks always seems to shut down incorrectly despite me properly shutting it down within the game means that it's communicating with Windows in a bad way. To summarize, I don't think this crash is related to 64-bit, but to the quitting from 32-bit as other crashes appear. In fact, I see no separate event for running the 64-bit version. Let's go back to your list. chkdisk reveals nothing wrong. Never done a RAM test, but I have 24 megs and never had a problem. I can come back to sfc. I don't have any major temperature issues that I know of. This is a DELL Gaming Computer. 24 MB of RAM again. NVIDIA 1060 video card (I have since added Railworks64 to the control panel, also). I use default monitor specs for my SAMSUNG monitor; I don't know a lot about the monitor itself other than it's got a nice big screen on it and is native at 1920x1080 or something along those lines. I did not change any settings within TS and they are default settings. I run TS fullscreen and non-windowed; I am able to easily record my activities using keyboard shortcuts this way and not get any of my Steam notifications with it or anything like the Steam overlay in-game, so I usually leave it as such. It seems on a system check I'm still on the 1903 Windows and 2004 did not update as I thought it was going to force itself to, so I'm still apparently on build 1903. NVIDIA is 445.98. I don't see that on the older driver list, so I am wondering if this is a beta version. Contemplating upgrading that. Need to update my sound driver as I might have an issue caused by the current one. Recent add-ons, installed but not used: two African routes, the LGV pair, and a few locos. Nothing third-party is installed. Most recent add-on is the route I was playing, Suburban Glasgow. Never had issues while on Sherman Hill or London-Brighton weith graphics glitches. And my computer should be good enough to run Suburban Glasgow anyway, and indeed DID run it, it glitched in the menu. Might have subscribed to one or two featured Workshop scenarios, but they were for older routes. I have no blueprints.pak files visible in Assets. My guess is I would need to show hidden files. When I first went to run 64-bit, I told my services that prompted me to let it through. And again, my attempt to run it also borked 32-bit, which didn't start again until I rebooted. So if antivirus is normally allowing 32-bit, I don't think it's the issue here when 32-bit also fails after that attempt at 64-bit. Where are the UAC settings in case I don't know this? Also, with the NVIDIA, what settings should I give Railworks64 assuming that's enough to run it?
Cyclone So we can virtually rule out a Windows issue so far. UAC this explains it: https://articulate.com/support/article/how-to-turn-user-account-control-on-or-off-in-windows-10 sfc and DISM: Exactly in order from a cmd (admin) prompt sfc /scannow DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /CheckHealth DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /ScanHealth DISM /Online /Cleanup-Image /RestoreHealth Repeat until all errors fixed and then run sfc /scannow up to 3 times following the above The openal32.dll suggests a sound type error, and that can cause a exception code 0xc0000005 (OOM, Access Violation, SBHH) error. This needs to be fixed before you can run in 64-bit mode - DTG might help here? Did you look at "View Reliability History" at the time of the crash - did it show any technical details? nVidia driver 457.09 is the latest and stable driver version - make sure you dl the STANDARD version and do not allow Windows to update the driver. I would recommend a clean install, and even remove the old driver and then run a clean install. Your Windows version is now slightly old - why didn't ver 2004 download? If you have time, do have a look at my TS2018 settings nVidia Control Panel on UKTS ID 38190 it may or may not help! The graphics card - no real answer from me - I recall from around 2012 ish that sort of effect occurred if the inbuilt fonts had been "corrupted" - but that is just a guess. I'll have a look in my file library and see if I can see anything and if you have any more info - that would be useful. However, It might be worth resetting your graphics by closing Steam/TS, navigating to \steam\steamapps\common\railworks\Content and deleting/ renaming the playerprofiles.bin file - open Steam/TS it will rebuild this file with default graphics settings- so you need to reset them in TS20XX! It is useful if you clear the blueprints.pak file - you can do it in TS20XX settings - clear the cache - but remember you have to re-start in 64-bit mode as the default is 32-bit. pKa
First SFC fixed some errors. The CheckHealth and ScanHealth found nothing. This seems to eliminate RestoreHealth as there is clearly no health to be restored. Do I still need to run the three extra scans? I wonder if updating my Realtek Audio will fix this issue. Where? In the Event Viewer? I did do a clean install of my last version, and did this driver research. Given I'm on a newer version I am guessing an update direct to the newer version would probably still work. This saves having to load up an uninstaller program. Can it be removed using other means? I don't want to remove the control panel, obviously, just the driver. Also, Windows does not have permission to modify drivers. I think it happened when I was trying to delay the restart - I suspect I clicked on Pause Updates somewhere in there. It did not install on reboot after that fiddling. So might be paused after all. Frankly, I want to stop updates from happening at some point so I don't have to fuss with my setup; Windows Update has a history of breaking everything, and this happened on a Windows 7 laptop as well. Going to leave that bunched. I can look at the settings later (it's early morning here, going to sleep). Let me know if you find anything related to NVIDIA. I wonder if the errors fixed by the SFC scan now might solve the issue, but I'm not sure. All I know is that it was localized to the game when it happened, and I was able to Alt-TAB to other windows - even making them the active window - and they didn't minimize the game, which had completely crashed and was stuck on my desktop. I could not even get to the Task Manager to scrub it. Hence the cold boot. I can try removing playerproperties.bin and go do something while the game loads, then come back after. Not now, though. And clearing the Blueprints pak is the same as clearing cache? I try to do that regularly, but I wish clearing the cache just quit the game and left it quit so you have to restart it. As is, I have to stop it from rebooting, and it takes a long time to rebuild the scenario database, I find, after a cache clear (rebuilding the file, I am sure).
I am not saying you change your graphics settings but an update to your Graphics Driver might have done that. So if you have just updated your Graphics Driver roll back to the previous version. Nvidia is on version 457.09 - I'm running 451.48 as that is ok for me
An update was made some time ago in an attempt to work towards a fix of another issue. As-is, that issue is still present and it's been too long, I believe, to roll back. (Plus I completely removed it - there is no rolling back.) When I said I never changed my setting, I never went to the menu to change it. But I will take a look next time I run the game. So, an edit. I found Reliability History. In the last three weeks or so covered, it seems every time I run Railworks, it exits into an error. Attached is an example (we'll ignore when I kill Firefox, or the cold boot; the highlighted day is more typical).
I had a problem with my graphics a few months back which was down to a Nvidia update. So I went on the their website and downloaded an earlier version - problem solved.
Ah. Well, either way, it was some time ago that I changed it. I could download an older version, but as the issue seems to be localized to TS, it might be best if I update the graphics card THEN delete the BIN file to rebuild my graphics settings as suggested. If I then have issues, I can go back to 390, which is the version that was pre-installed.
Cyclone Your issue is certainly to do with openal32.dll and that needs fixing - DTG can help? NEVER rollback a nVidia driver it is NOT recommended by nVidia - always uninstall a driver then a clean install of a stable driver. I thoroughly test each new nVidia driver update in TS and the latest driver is stable and works fine, as have the last several updates. nvidia notes: Do Not Use Windows Rollback for Graphics Drivers To reinstall a previous or older NVIDIA graphics driver, do not use the Windows rollback feature. This method will not reliably restore all the previous driver files. Instead, use the Windows Add and Remove programs to remove the current driver, and then install the older driver using setup.exe. The text blocks are probably due to a corruption in the file fonts.json found here \Steam\steamapps\common\RailWorks\data\scaleform\fonts.json there are some sort of "fixes" but none seem to work universally. Probably best to ask DTG - the only fix I would try first would be to replace the playerprofiles.bin file, as the latter can resolve text issues too. How big is your scenario db file? If large it may be worth deleting it and allow TS to rebuild a new db file. This is how: \STEAM\steamapps\common\RailWorks\Content and delete/rename the following 2 files: SDBCache.bin; SDBCache.bin.MD5; If nothing works, the next time you carry out a verification of game files - first delete the fonts.json file then carry out the verification. With sfc/scannow and DISM you should carry out exactly as I said - regardless of no errors - just to be sure! Clearing the cache in TS20XX is the same as deleting the blueprints.pak files in the Assets folder it is best to do it outside of TS as any restart from inside TS loads the 32-bit version by default. If I've missed any points - please re-ask.
DTG Jamie, you are summoned. Noted. Jamie, need your input here especially. I'm not sure who else handles bugs and I'm not sure if Support can handle this, but I'll put in a support request and hopefully it can be quickly seen. I have not seen ANY reports with the screen in the initial post happening. I have 177 add-ons. No third-party installed yet. Playing with Steam assets for a while to make sure everything is fine and dandy. Then I may branch out as I see everything works. I want to note that verification did NOT solve the 64-bit not running issue. In fac, 32-bit refused to run after a 64-bit attempt, and the ONLY fix that worked was a reboot. At that point, 32-bit ran again. 64-bit could as well, perhaps, but then maybe 32-bit fails. I need to figure out how to use either at will. I can try deleting fonts in case that file is bugged and run the verification while sleeping since it takes about 40 minutes. Running another SFC run. Files deleted. Jamie, your input is especially helpful regarding the bugged screen. The suggestion is a problem with the fonts file in the TS folder. Your help may also be useful for the 64 bit problem, though that I am sure can go through Support anyway. The fonts issue I'm not sure if they would be able to handle. I can confirm the issue is localized to TS, and did not affect the rest of the machine; the reason for the cold boot was because TS would not cede for other applications and acted like a permanent desktop with that screen above. You can also see the numerous reports in my compatibility history, later down, generally for Railworks, showing a report like the second image in that post.
Cyclone The fonts issue may be solved by the playerprofiles.bin replacement - can you try that first?
Will do so. PlayerProfiles.bin is deleted and I'll restart the game to rebuild the file. For future reference, I know I have the odd scenario in my list from the workshop that shows a train as "C" or no name, or even a scenario name incorrectly; is this also the way to fix this, or would the solution be to unsubscribe from everything, delete the workshop folder, and then resubscribe loading each time I add a few items to keep track? I may have to create a bit of a collection to keep track of my subscribed items to cover this, or limit subscriptions at any time. UPDATE: See attached. Turns out that I now can't Alt-TAB out of the game. I'm not sure if it's something related to Suburban Glasgow taking up a lot of memorey or whether it's something else. If I do Alt-TAB, I crash into a bubble immediately, even if I don't change windows and just have the window selection up. The error is the attached vortex error. What exactly is this? I am pretty sure that the description I find on a Steam discussion, "This is usually an indication that your graphics card does not meet the minimum spec or that it has run out of memory", dioes not apply to a NVIDIA GeForce 1060 card. So what could be causing it for me? I used to be able to tab out to check my recording software and tab right back in quickly. Obviously, another option is running fullscreen borderless; the challenge then is getting my OBS to find it consistently. That might also help the fonts issue if it ever recurs.
I would unsubscribe and remove all WS scenarios and start again -check they are gone with TS-Tools and delete any files left in \STEAM\steamapps\workshop\content\24010 but not the folder itself. Check with TS-Tools for any WS leftovers per DTG/SteamWS only route they are coloured blue. Then re-subscribe one at a time etc. Alt-Tab could be a windows desktop issue rather than a TS one. Vertex Buffer issues can indicate a problem with a video card Try these hacks - may work Vertex Buffer Failed Issues To Fix a Vertex Buffer Error see the DTG articles for an explanation. Usually an error between the CPU and gpu buffers – many causes. · Close TS20XX · Run a Command prompt (cmd.exe) as administrator · Type · disable vertex buffer objects=1 · close · run TS20XX Plus Also try the following as a TS20XX set launch option: Open your library in steam>Right click on the game from the library>Properties>Set Launch Options. Add the following command note the "-" and there must be a space between any other options. · Using the command line launch options in TS - · -force -d3d9 · and/or try · -nomemorybias -dxlevel 90 No guarantees Notes: Simply, Vertex buffers are used to optimise or share processing by both the CPU and the GPU. Vertex Buffers provide us with a mechanism of being able to load vertex buffer data into the CPU (and RAM), while at the same time allowing the GPU to process an earlier batch of vertex data. This gives us a good image at reasonable frame rates. The problem can arise if the gpu bottlenecks the CPU or vice versa, and then you get the error 'failed to map the vertex buffer . . . '. It can be caused by quite a few things including too high settings in the game, driver issue, weak CPU and strong gpu and vice versa, corrupt file(s), faulty gpu (maybe), not enough RAM, not enough VRAM and of course other hardware/software issues. Definitely try windowed/borderless modes TS is "upset" by apps running in the background, ie can lose focus and these options eliminate that!
This will take forever if I undertake that. Ugh. Also a lot to digest here. Seems like it's going to be a pain just to play this game. LOL Again, I can launch it, and have been able to Alt-TAB out previously; I wonder if it's because I was using London-Brighton at the time, and now I'm doing it on Suburban Glasgow? I've been having issues getting the capture to get games not taking the entire screen. Other than that I'd be tempted to try it, mainly to prevent the game bugging out and forcing a cold boot.
Changing how you display TS20XX should have NO effect on whether it crashes or not. If it does something ain't right! You have always got playerprofiles.bin to delete and start again. You have to eliminate WS scenarios if you are getting crashes - it should take less than 30 minutes if done properly irrespective of how many WS scenarios you have installed. Keep us up to date on how you go!
Just to be clear, the only crashes I am having so far have been when I Alt-TAB out of the game. I'm inclined not to fuss with it in the short term. Do workshop scenarios have a possibility of causing that garbled image I put at the top of the thread? That was post-scenario and, if considered a crash, is the only mid-game occurrence I had, albeit in the menu. I did have my other one around the Workshop tab, so maybe there is something to it, but that one was nothing more than error messages stuck in Windows and the game being stuck where I was in the menu (whereupon I finally gave up and cold booted); this one didn't have Windows errors, and just garbled the image. Also, before I ever fuss with it, I need to set aside a lot of time to create a collection of all of my subscribed content so I can reduce that load. Also, the first real crash I had, besides the Workshop page in 2020, was from PlayerProfiles.bin being deleted. That was the first time I Alt-TABbed out and got a crash.
I used to get quite reliable crashes when tabbing out back in 2016. Not since the update. Aside from memory crashes which are more of a memory management issue / bug, the game shouldn't crash at all. Actually, you might have faulty assets or plugins. The Springfield Line used to crash the 64 bit version. Workshop items can be faulty, too, but shouldn't have any effect on the menu graphics. The image in the first post seems to be problematic. Font opacity seems to be completely missing. Either something gone wrong in the drivers when tabbing out, or you may have some hardware issue which isn't particularly bad (or else you'd have it everywhere) but can cause it. I used to have a memory issue (15 years ago) that was only crashing a single game, but reliably.
I see, I see. Again, I have been able to produce reliably reproducible crashes since the deleting of the then-current PlayerProfiles.bin but am not sure what caused the fonts one. I know I did NOT Alt-TAB out, and have video showing I was navigating back to the Careers page; you can identify that nine routes are showing in the loading screen trying to select the route. That is where the mystery comes in. I have decided to go with a guess on cache being an issue as I had played several scenarios, but as I've said to Support previously, the fact that this is happening like this shows how badly the core of the game needs to be updated (starting from scratch and bring in the routes to the new core). I have offered to beta-test the new core when the time comes as I have a number of routes I can test with already without having to have them granted to me, so we shall see if and when that new core occurs and if I am asked to participate. I will try the Alt-TAB again when I return to playing London-Brighton.
